So, my old 60G SSD now lives in an external USB enclosure. I want to install Linux in it, but I want to have the option to run on older hardware if necessary, so I would like to have both 32 and 64-bit boot options on the same drive, and partition if possible.
Is it possible? Any ideas?
Short answer: It's possible on the same partition, but use 2 partitions instead
Long answer: All mainstream distros will be unable to (or at least crippled if) have 32 and 64 bit versions in the same file system. There are some specialist possibilities, but this is not what you want to boot from this drive on arbitrary machines.
But all mainstream distros will work perfectly fine if you install a 64 Bit version on one partition, then a 32 Bit version on a second. If you aim for low-RAM machines add a 3rd partition as swap, this can be shared between both installations.
/home, and even a lot of /var, resulting in even less storage waste.
Commented
May 29, 2017 at 7:06
Just make two ext4 partitions e.g. with gparted and one swap partition. Then you can install two versions of linux. Most linux distributions should install and configure the boot manager correctly automatically. they will ask during installation where you want to install the grub boot manager. Just pick the usb ssd.
